January 16 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Jonathan Quick:
There’s only one goal that he hasn’t liked since he’s been back, and it was the Detroit goal, the winning goal. He guessed high glove, and that’s why he looked funny on it. He shot low, and it went for the rebound out there, and they shot it in. He’s guessing high glove…so that’s one goal out of how many that he hasn’t had. I kind of defer to him on that stuff.

On the recent roster moves:
We sent Tyler down to play and hopefully get his mojo back in his game. It was kind of what we talked to these boys about – if they’re not playing in their role in minutes, those kids aren’t going to play when they’re here full time. They’re not going to be fourth line guys, right? Lindy, Tyler or Tanner – they’re going to be guys who’ve got to play minutes, so they’ve got to continue to play minutes.

On what allows Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin’s skill sets to “work so well together”:
They don’t play that much together unless Jake’s playing really well. The special skill set is Drew Doughty’s. [Reporter: It’s that easy?] It’s not that easy. Drew very seldom has the same partner through the course of a game because of our young guys, we don’t have that guy on the left side that can play the situations that Robyn can play five or six times, or Willie can play five or six times a game. Drew very seldom plays with the same partner, if you watch for even strength. Even strength. [Reporter: Do you like it that way-] No. [Reporter: Or would you rather have a guy that you just can plug in and say, ‘this is my guy?’] Yeah. I think every team would. I mean, right here. Barret and Bouw play with two kids, right? It makes a big difference. It doesn’t matter where you are. It’s not ‘what I like,’ it’s what every team likes.

On whether he has had a chance to talk to Martin Jones:
Yep. I just wanted to make sure they got in last night, those kids. You know what? These guys understand numbers and salary caps and 23-man rosters. They understand that. I think Marty’s exactly what, when you talked to him when he was here before, I mean he came in and played really well, and he was really average when he left…So now you put him in that role where he gets his games, but he can work on his game, too…He’s a guy that with growth and development has the opportunity to be a number one guy. Not many other guys – they get stuck in where they’re at. But he’s so young, and he can play behind Jonathan, and then just the way the schedule is this year, we can use him.

On Ben Scrivens:
He had to compete for a job in training camp. He had to make the team. We brought in Mathieu Garon, and one of them was going to be Jonathan Quick’s backup. Ben beat him out. And when Jonathan got hurt, Ben came in, and then when he struggled, then Jonesy went in. He’s 27 years old, and he’s a proven guy. So he’s trying to prove where he fits in the league.

On any concern over fatigue with players who come back from the Olympics:
Well, the guys who play in the medal games, which is gold, silver, and bronze and fourth place, all come back at the same time. Our schedule is not like a lot of NHL teams. We’re done on the sixth. Some are done on the eighth. Some start on the 27th. Some start on the 26th. Some start on the 28th, so everybody’s different. First off, unless you know something I don’t know about who’s going to be playing, then we might have two guys, we might have one guy, we might have nobody in those medal games. You don’t know. So that’s how you manage it. [Reporter: Is there an advantage for some team that has more guys dealing with that in the second half of the year, versus less?] You know what? I don’t think anybody knows. I did it in San Jose with the Salt Lake [Olympics], and I did it in Calgary, and that was Vancouver. It was an hour flight.

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